The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-06-29
From Pilgrims Private Journal.

Inc following from my journal was
mostly published a number of years
ago in an Illinois paper. 1t will be
new to nearly all of the readers of the
Messenger. J. III.
November 26, 1875.
To-day I have walked nearly twenty
miles, reckoning out and back. from
the peaceful Whipple Asylum at Mys-
tic, Connecticut, to look at war objects,
so that I might better plead for the
beauty and usefulness Of peace AMI
show the uselessness and wickedness
of war.
I first called to see the Groton Mon-
ument, which was erected in 1880. IT
stands about 100 feet from the ruins of
the old Revolutionary war fort, Girls
void, where Col. Ledyard and about
eighty American soldiers were slain by
the British after the surrender of the
fort on the 9th of September, 1881.
Col. Ledyard was slain with his own
sword. It is said the British conf
mander inquired Immediately on en-
tering the fort, "Who commands this
fort?" Col. Ledyard replied, II did,
but you do now," and presented his
sword to the British officer, who took
it and instantly slew Col. Ledyard.
All! who can tell the cruelties, the
crimes, the horrors of war? In what
book are they to be- found? Only in
that Book which faithfully keeps the
records of all human actions.
Such monuments are much more
barbarous, and pagan than humane
and Christian. When men shall beat
their swords into plowshares and learn
war no more, I trust such war piles
throughout the world will be taken
down and built into plain temples of
worship for Jesus the Prince of Peace.
About twenty-five rods below the
monument, toward the New London
River, is battery, around which eigh-
teen large guns are mounted on iron
carriages. These guns are placed on
the brow of an embankment, about
twenty-five feet high, and are pointed
toward the river, which is about thirty
rods distant. Between the battery and
the river are about dozen two-story
dwelling houses. I should like to
know if those good people, in their
beautiful houses, lie down at night on
their pillows with souls more full of
thankfulness. and sleep night after
night in sweeter manner, because
those eighteen great American guns
are firmly fixed above their heads,
continually saying, by their grim iron
presence, to all the nations of the
earth, and to England in particular,
"Eater NeaO London RiVer, If you
dare.n
There are lying on the ground sew
eral rods back of the battery in row,
like logs in mill-yard, eighteen other
large guns-three of them are fifteen
feet long and three feet and nine
inches in diameter at the breech. A
person who never saw such large guns
would be liable, after reading of them,
to underrate in his mind their true
size, so that when he came to look at
them he would be likely to exclaim,
"These guns look much larger than I
supposed they would, did not realize
that they were so large"
AS passed around among and be-
fore the mouths of these immense
weapons of human slaughter and de-
struction, this question came in solemn
and woeful power into my sad soul,
"Can this be a Christian land? Oh! !!
aUhen will it ever be truly Christian
lied so that it may be "ImmanuePs
landn indeed-a light for the dark ma
tions of the earth. When, oh achen!